Whitbread PLC, one of the UK's largest hotel and restaurant company, has announced that it has secured a string of new property deals portfolio by more than 1,000 rooms and add five new pub restaurants across the UK. This represents a cumulative investment of around £100 million.

Following last week's announcement to acquire 21 Express by Holiday Inn hotels with over 1,500 potential rooms, Whitbread has signed five new joint sites where a Premier Inn will be built alongside a new pub restaurant. Three new Beefeater and two new Table Table pub restaurants are planned. The joint site business model generates leading industry returns and is the preferred business model outside City Centres and Airports.

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In London, two new standalone Premier Inn hotels with integrated restaurants will add more than 500 rooms.

The two other Premier Inn standalone sites will be on Fox Street, in Preston with 136 rooms and High Fishergate, Doncaster with 135 rooms.

Mark Anderson, Property Director for Whitbread Hotels & Restaurants, said: "This is bright news from Whitbread in increasingly gloomy economic times. We have disciplined targets for growth. These investments demonstrate that we are well on our way to delivering them. For us, it's more a case of opportunity bites than credit crunch.

"Our property acquisitions team is identifying prime sites for development across the UK and Ireland as we roll out our expansion plans. Increasingly, and in a tighter property market, it is the strength of Whitbread's covenant that is a major differentiator and enables us to secure the very best sites."

(CD/JM)